Hot Work Accidents

25 years ago, I was witness to an incident where a new pipeline was being prefabricated by supporting it on a "empty" drum. Unfortunately the drum had been earlier used for draining naphtha from a vessel and still contained naphtha vapours. We were inside the control room (about 40 meters from the hot work) when the welder started welding two pieces of the pipe supported on the drum. The explosion could be heard inside the control room. The heavy pipe was lifted 15 feet into the air and fell on the welder killing him.
The basic precautions for hot work include a written work permit system, monitoring the work place for combustibles/flammables, ensuring that no flammable material enters the hot work area/equipment by proper positive isolation,containing the sparks from the hot work and proper training of both permit issuer and receiver. In many plants I visit, the operations and maintenance personnel think it is the job of the safety officer to check these points. You must understand that is the primary job of both the permit issuer and the permit receiver to check all these points before they carry out the work.Let us not kill more people.